The Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) today announced the new batch of Gen Next designers, who will be showcasing their collections at the upcoming Winter/Festive edition in August.

The Gen Next Designer Programme at LFW has given the Indian fashion industry some of its biggest designers like Rahul Mishra, Nachiket Barve, Masaba Gupta, Kallol Dutta and Aneeth Arora.

The Winter/Festive 2018 batch has been handpicked by the LFW Advisory Board, which includes industry stalwarts like Anamika Khanna, Anita Dongre, Manish Malhotra, Narendra Kumar, Rohit Bal and Sabyasachi among others.

The five designers, who have made the cut this year are Ajay Kumar Singh, Kanika Sachdev, Shweta Gupta and Yadvi Agarwal from New Delhi and Anurag Gupta from Noida.

"Discovery is one of the key pillars of Lakme Fashion Week and the Gen Next show helps us unearth new fashion talent every season. These new designers are the future of Indian fashion. This Winter/Festive 2018, we had a tough job of selecting 5 talented designers from the jury shortlist. Looking forward to seeing their collection on the runway," Ashwath Swaminathan, Head of Innovations, Lakme said in a statement.

Jaspreet Chandok, vice president and head - fashion, IMG Reliance said the programme aims to promote and shape the face of Indian fashion industry and "this season has seen some exceptional talent come to the forefront, and we are very excited to see what these young designers bring to the ramp."

The Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive edition is scheduled to happen from August 22 to 26.